University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

Astronomy Research at Durham

Astronomy at Durham

~90 astronomers in 5 groups:

• Xgal theory & observations (45)

• Astronomical instrumentation (32)

• Gamma rays (9)

• High energy astro (3)

• Historical astronomy (1)

Astronomy at Durham

University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

The Institute for Computational Cosmology

Funded by:

• JIF

• JREI

• Prof Peter Ogden

• Durham University

New building

Ogden Chair

New lectureship

COSMA-1 Supercomputer www.icc.dur.ac.uk

The “Cosmology machine”

The Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics

Opened by Tony Blair

on Oct/02

University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

Key questions addressed at Durham

1. What is the universe made of?

2. What is the identity of the dark matter?

3. What are the values of the fundamental cosmological parameters?

4. What is the origin of cosmic structure?

5. How do galaxies form and evolve?

6. What is role of quasars in galaxy formation?

7. Astrophysics of extreme objects (black holes, gamma ray sources)

University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

Research tools

1. Observations (space and ground-based telescopes)

– Whole wavelength range from -rays to radio

– 4% of all worldwide telescope time (ESO VLT, Gemini)

– Large surveys of galaxies and quasars

– Targetted observations

2. Theory

– Large supercomputer simulations

– Analytical techniques (semi-analytic galaxy formation)

– Modelling

University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

The Cosmology Machine

Titania24 Sunfire processors48 Gigabytes

Centaur128 UltraSparc III cluster 64 Gigabytes ram

One of the largest supercomputers for academic research in the UK dedicated to numerical cosmology

£650k JREI grant to Virgo£250k Sun

Opened by Patricia Hewitt in Aug/01

COSMA-1

COSMA-3

£675k SRIF-2 -- ICC £55k SRIF-2 -- Sussex £75k PPARC – Virgo

2006

COSMA-2

£465k JIF grant to ICC£200k Sun

March/04

Quintor512 processors, 630 Gbytes ram, 60 Tbyte storage

Total cost (2002-06) £2, 370,000

PPARC contribution £75,000

University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

• 1994 – 04 : 14 faculty appointments

• 1999 : £600k refurbishment instrumentation labs

• 2001 : £1 million for Ogden Centre

• 2003 : £1 million for Netpark instrumentation lab

• 2004 : £ 675k (SRIF-2) for Cosmology Machine

• 2004 -- : 4 new Professors

University Support for Astronomy

Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005-2010

University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005-2010

Recent appointments: • 2005 : Alastair Edge (Obs: extragalactic)

• 2004 : Martin Ward (Obs: X-rays, AGN/starburst, GRB)

• 2004 : Adrian Jenkins (50% e-Science Lecturer, ICC)

• 2002 : Tom Theuns (Theory, ICC)

• 2001 : Shaun Cole (Theory, ICC)

• 2000 : Simon Morris (Instrumentation & Obs)

• 2000 : Chris Done (accretion disks)

Promotions and future appointments:

• 2004 : Richard Bower Professor

• 2004 : Ian Smail Professorial Fellow

• 2005 : Shaun Cole Professor

University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005-2010

University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

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are needed to see this picture.

The 2dF galaxy redshift survey

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University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005-2010

• 401 refereed papers since 2001

• Ranked 1st in UK astronomy for citation impact in latest analysis by Institute of Scientific Information (ISI)

• 5 applicants (+MJW) in “highly-cited” ISI list (top 0.5%) (total of 20 in UK)

Publications

University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005-2010

Refereed papers by applicants

Cm = citations per papermean for NASA ADS

University of Durham

Institute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational CosmologyInstitute for Computational Cosmology

• The Virgo consortium (based at Durham)

• The 2dF galaxy and QSO redshift survey

• The 2dF/SDSS Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) programme

• EC RTN on Physics of the IGM

• EC RTN SISCO (Durham coordinator)

• EC Alfa network programme (Durham coordinator)

Major international collaborations:

Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology at Durham: 2005-2010